Like most Asian nations, China has a traditional bias for sons. Many families abort female foetuses and abandon baby girls to ensure their one child is a son, so about 118 boys are born for every 100 girls, against a global average of 103 to 107.

“Our country has the most serious gender imbalance that is most prolonged and affecting the most number of people,” the National Health and Family Planning Commission said in a statement on its website.

The agency said it would step up supervision on foetal sex determination, which is banned in China. It acknowledged that women were transferring blood samples overseas to determine the genders of their babies as part of an “underground chain for profit”.

[…] Researchers have warned that large sex-ratio imbalances could lead to instability as more men remain unmarried, raising the risks of anti-social and violent behaviour. [Source]

China is paying the economic price for its 36-year-old one-child policy, with the third-straight yearly decline in its labor force weighing on growth prospects.

The working-age population — those aged 16 to 59 — fell 3.71 million last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said today, steeper than the decline of 2.44 million in 2013. The first drop was in 2012 when the group — then also including 15-year-olds — decreased by 3.45 million.

Like Japan’s experience since the late 1990s, the downturn in China’s working-age population is corresponding with a deceleration in economic growth. While the shrinking labor pool is helping prevent a rise in joblessness, it’s also driving up labor costs and eroding the manufacturing and export competitiveness that helped fuel China’s 30-year expansion. [Source]

Researchers at Abbott Laboratories in Shanghai are busy testing flavors of nutritional drinks for China’s senior citizens. Kimberly-Clark Corp. has launched television ads for its Depend adult diapers and expanded distribution online. Local e-commerce companies like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.com Inc. are rolling out senior-focused marketing pushes.

[…] The boomers are now hitting old age: China’s over-65 population is projected to soar to 210 million in 2030 from 110 million, and by 2050 will account for a quarter of China’s total population, according to United Nations data. By then, the U.N. says, China’s elderly population may exceed the entire U.S. population.

[…] Alibaba, with two million online shoppers over the age of 50, according to a 2013 company survey, recently launched a senior shopping section on Taobao where links to products like slippers and long underwear are more readily available, a spokeswoman said.